March 15, 2007
Yellow Jackets Stalk Endangered Records
As the Baldwin-Wallace College baseball team gets ready to open its northern campaign, several school records are in danger of falling. Based on their performances at last week’s Gene Cusic Collegiate Classic in Ft. Myers, Fla., where the Yellow Jackets went 5–4 and outscored their opponents 82 to 45, these are the B-W players in the hunt for a record-setting season:
-
Senior pitcher Clayton Kynkor has his sight on the best record in school history after winning both of the games he started at the Classic. His 12–4 career record is now third all-time and tops in this decade.
-
Senior bullpen ace J.D. Fullerton added to the career record for relief appearances he set last season with four more in Ft. Myers. With 32 career appearances, he needs 13 more to break the record for total pitching appearances set by Bernie Bonhotel from 1985 to 1988.
-
After getting hit with a pitch five times in Florida, sophomore center fielder Cody Kidd is already about half-way to the season record set by Kevin Brown last year.
-
Kidd, who led the Jackets with 16 runs scored, and junior second baseman Nate Luken, who scored 12, have set themselves up for a run at the season scoring record of 47 set by Paul Farrah in 1988.
-
Sophomore catcher and designated hitter Matt Bolte drove in 15 runs, putting him on pace to break Pat Shannon’s record of 50 RBIs set in 2002.
The Yellow Jackets’ hunt for endangered records continues this weekend when they travel to southwest Ohio for a doubleheader at Urbana University.
[ B-W Baseball Weekly Sports Notes ]
March 9, 2007
B-W Baseball Alumni Kick Off Home Runs for Heritage Campaign
Heritage Field has come a long way since the 1950s, when a rudimentary ball field with a couple of benches and a chicken-wire backstop was carved out of abandoned farmland on the east end of the Baldwin-Wallace College campus.
Today, it has one of the best playing fields in the Ohio Athletic Conference, and the facilities around it have steadily improved since the Yellow Jackets hosted back-to-back OAC championship tournaments in the mid-1980s. Just a few years ago, an eight-foot-high outfield fence was installed, and last season saw the debut of permanent bleachers.
But one thing about Heritage Field hasn’t changed in 50 years: There’s still no press box.
While our rivals’ ballparks, like John Carroll’s Schweikert Field and Otterbein’s Fishbaugh Field, have been upgraded with new press boxes in recent years, Heritage Field’s “press box” is nothing but a wooden shack with a beat-up scorer’s table that sits behind the backstop. It’s an eyesore, and it obstructs the view from our new bleachers.
For the last few years, the B-W baseball alumni have been raising money to build a new, modern press box facility with a team meeting room and training table, a recruiting office, a concession stand and restrooms.
This week we kicked off the “Home Runs for Heritage” campaign. We’re asking all of our alums to pledge a donation for every home run the Yellow Jackets hit during the 2007 season. All of the money raised will be contributed to the Heritage Field fund at B-W to help pay for the design and construction of our new press box.
We’re also inviting fans and supporters of the B-W baseball program to join us in our campaign.
Please help us by pledging whatever you can to the Home Runs for Heritage campaign. As a guide to your pledge, the Jackets have averaged about 25 home runs a season since 1995. No pledge is too small! We need as many pledges as we can get to demonstrate the support for a new press box to the college’s new administration.
You can make your pledge online at the Home Runs for Heritage home page, or you can send your pledge by e-mail message to heritage@bwbaseball.com.
Thank you for supporting the Home Runs for Heritage campaign!
